Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘SOIL’ Category

A salt marsh on Pier 1 that was innundated  during Superstorm Sandy. Courtesy Brooklyn Bridge Park / Etienne Frossard

This salt marsh on Pier 1 was inundated during Superstorm Sandy. Courtesy Brooklyn Bridge Park / Etienne Frossard

Large parts of Brooklyn Bridge Park were submerged for up to four hours during Superstorm Sandy. On the Ecological Landscape Association’s web site, Rebecca McMackin, the park’s horticulturist, describes how the park is recovering from the storm. She credits the landscape architects at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates for their “forward-thinking park design”—their use of salt-tolerant native plants and sandy soils that drain quickly. She also explains how the site has been managed since the storm to flush salt out of the soils.  The park’s managers used soil additives in various areas to reduce plant stress and will be monitoring the additives’ long-term effects. Read the whole story here.

Read Full Post »

USA Today has come out with an incredible report on long-forgotten “ghost factories,” where lead was processed before the Environmental Protection Agency was created. Following up on research by the environmental scientist William Eckel, reporters used old Sanborn Maps, directories, and historical photos to identify  more than 230 former lead factory sites around the country. They conducted hundreds of soil tests and found that many of the neighborhoods where these factories once existed have unsafe levels of lead in the upper layers of the soil.

The contamination is not limited to properties where smelting took place. Lead dust released from smokestacks blew into the surrounding neighborhoods, where it was supplemented by lead from paint and particles emitted from vehicles that burned leaded gasoline, creating a serious health threat for the young children who live and play there. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 225 other followers